Caesar After the Death of Julius Caesar,

¶ … Caesar After the death of Julius Caesar, Rome and its Republic were in chaos, but out of this chaos emerged an unlikely candidate for succession, a young nephew of Caesar named Octavian. Julius Caesar had already set the groundwork for a single man to head the Roman government, but it would be his nephew, Octavian who would erect the framework for a single ruler.

Through careful manipulation of the existing legal system, Octavian was able to accumulate unprecedented powers and ushered in the Imperial Age of Rome, but his clever refusal to exactly define the limits of his power enabled him to appear to be an office-holder with limited powers, but in reality exercise seemingly unlimited authority over the state. Octavian came from a family of the lower nobility, however, his father had taken for his second wife Atia, who's mother was a niece of Julius Caesar.

After Julius Caesar had assume the role of dictator for life in Rome, and because he had no son of his own, Caesar adopted Octavian and secretly made arrangements for the boy in his will. There are no accounts of what Caesar had in mind for Octavian, but when Caesar was murdered by Senatorial enemies, it was announced that his nephew Octavian would be his heir and inherit three quarters of Caesar's wealth and property.

(Eck and Takacs 7) "After fourteen years of political wrestling, wars devious planning and struggle for mere survival, Octavian was now alone and supreme." (Southern 100) And while Octavian had for all practical purposes assumed absolute power, he was clever enough to never create an absolute definition to what his powers were.

He avoided the use of extraordinary titles and claimed "to be merely the first man [Princeps] in the state with no powers greater than any of his colleagues." (Southern 104) "Princeps" being a benign and legal title meaning simply "first man." (Everitt 209) But the first Augustan settlement in 27 B.C. made between Octavian and the Senate elected him consul for a number of years, and gave him the title of proconsul for a number of provinces.

He did not use the term "imperium" to describe his authority, but instead used "auctoritas," which implied a less threatening meaning to the Romans and set up even more confusion to the limits of his actual power. Later the second Augustan settlement of 23 B.C. again created more confusion over his exact role as he was granted "tribunes potestas," giving him the power and authority of the Tribune to veto any action of the Senate, Assemblies, or Magistrates.

And in exchange for giving up the annual office of Consul, Octavian was granted a number of less threatening offices, but secretly kept the unofficial right to name future Consuls. If one had to describe Octavian's rise to power and eventual adoption of the title "Augustus Caesar," it would have to be as a "puppet-master." Octavian did not like to assume formal titles of formal offices, but like to work in the grey areas outside.